The real heroes in Wisconsin’s secret John Doe prosecutions.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right to free expression is at risk as the Wisconsin case works its way through Federal appeals and towards the Supreme Court. It’s worth reviewing the facts as they have evolved here.

The prosecutors (all Democrats) have been trying unsuccessfully to throw a wrench into the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision by linking Gov. Scott Walker to issue ads run by conservative groups in Wisconsin. A Wisconsin judge seemingly put a stop to the proceedings recently when he held that

coordinated ads can constitutionally be regulated only if they contain “express advocacy” or its “functional equivalent.” That’s campaign-finance-law jargon for a clear appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate.

Today news came out that Milwaukee D.A. John Chisholm considers it his personal mission to put a stop to Gov. Walker’s union reforms – was it because they made his teachers union wife cry? All of this adds up to Democrat efforts to unseat the Republican governor in November’s election. And Gov. Walker does deserves re-election. His reforms should be an inspiration to Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner in neighboring Illinois, who hesitates to come up with any concrete reform ideas in the state with the worst economic/union/pension record in the country.

The heroes are not always the people who run for office. Even with the courts ruling against them again and again, the Wisconsin prosecutors have been backed by media outlets providing fuel for the public union discourse ad infinitum. The Club for Growth is only one of the conservative Wisconsin organizations that has been chilled to the point of paralysis during the election. And Kelly Rindfleish is a former Walker campaign staffer who knows what it means to be the “collateral damage” of the Democrat prosecutors. Whether these foot soldiers set out to save the First Amendment or not, their stand will have repercussions of Biblical proportions. Scott Walker may end up winning this November election in Wisconsin, but he is not the real hero in this story.